The Reverend Pauli Murray

A graduate of Hunter College in 1933, Murray graduated first in class from Howard University Law School. Murray earned a Master of Laws at the University of California, Berkeley, and passed the California bar in 1945. Having been rejected based on race and gender from the University of North Carolina and Harvard University, respectively, in the 1940s, Murray became the first African American to be awarded a Doctor of Juridical Science from Yale University Law School in 1965. Murray served on the President’s Commission on the Status of Women and the Equality Committee of the ACLU, and was a founding member of the National Organization for Women. As an educator, Murray served as Vice President at Benedict College in South Carolina, taught at the Ghana School of Law in Accra, and later taught at Brandeis University. A prolific writer, Murray’s extensive bibliography includes writings on law and civil rights, a volume of poetry, and two memoirs, including Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family.

Upon returning to New York City, Murray sang in the choir and became an active member at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery. In March 1966, as a personal act of conscience documented through Murray’s private papers, they walked out in the middle of a Sunday service because they could not tolerate seeing only boys and men filling all the roles on the church altar except choir member.